Pee-wee’s Playhouse was the culmination of a character created back in the 70s by the multi-talented Paul Reubens. Reubens had joined the comedy group the Groundlings in the 70s. The Groundlings was the jumping-off point for several famous comedians and icons. This would include Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Cassandra Peterson, Craig T. Nelson, a who’s who list of SNL Alumni, Conan O’Brien, JJ Abrams, and well…just a lot of people.
A number of the troupe who were there when Reubens was a part of the Groundlings would wind up as part of not only Pee-wee’s Playhouse but also other Pee-wee projects. I mean…who can forget Cassandra Peterson, AKA Elvira, as the biker gang badass chick who wanted a go at Pee Wee first?
From his time creating the character at The Groundlings, Reubens had a go for Saturday Night Live which didn’t happen. After this, he put together a stage production built around the character of Pee Wee called The Pee Wee Herman Show, which became a hit. The show caught the attention of HBO, who aired a special which was recorded on the stage.
The Pee-wee Herman Show was far more adult in its content, including a gag with shoe mirrors looking up a woman’s skirt, a woman taking off her clothes because she’s been hypnotized, and Captain Carl and Miss Yvonne falling in love. Think of it as the naughtier version of a PBS kids show, and you get the idea. A number of the characters from this stage show would wind up in Pee Wee’s Playhouse, with the actors following as well. This included the late John Paragon and Phil Hartman as Jambi the Genie and Captain Carl and Lynne Marie Stewart as Miss Yvonne.
With the success of the HBO special and Pee Wee Herman becoming a pop culture icon, it wasn’t long till Hollywood was calling. So on August 9th, 1985 Pee Wee’s Big Adventure hit movie screens. Co-written by Phil Harman and Michael Varhol along with Reubens, the producers took a chance on a relatively unknown young director named Tim Burton…and the rest is history.
The movie featured Danny Elfman’s score and expanded the world of Pee Wee into a road trip on a mission to find his magical bike. The movie cost 7 million dollars and made nearly six times that back at the box office. This film would set the tone for a lot of the Playhouse with the humor being family friendly, but with just a bit of a naughty side. CBS took notice of the grey-suited lad with the bow tie and originally came to Reubens wanting a cartoon series. This didn’t happen which makes sense because when you think of Pee-wee Herman you think of Reuben’s just being a massive nerve of energy that’s always moving. He’s live action to an extreme. And so after some back and forth, CBS approved for Paul Reuben to not only star in a live action Saturday morning show but to produce and direct it too. He had full creative control which meant he really did get to put what he wanted up on screen.
The first season of Pee-wee’s Playhouse was filmed in New York in conditions that were not the best. The location had literally been a sweatshop at one time with equipment left over from that time. Sewing machines had to be moved out to allow for the sets to be designed. There was no AC in the building so that had to be brought in by other means, so no one fainted. But that didn’t stop the creativity that brought the playhouse to life. The set design was a celebration of color and crazy. The design is nearly a throwback to retro style mixed with off the wall color. It was created by many seasoned artists who made sure the entire design celebrated imagination and would grab kids.
Other aspects of Pee Wee’s Playhouse that celebrated different kinds of art were the recurring segments and the opening sequence. The team who would go on to create the world-famous Wallace & Gromit, Aardman Animations, created Penny, a little girl Claymation character with pennies for eyes. Stop motion segments as well as classic cartoons and LOTS of puppets I mean it did take place in Puppetland after all.
The show followed in the steps of classic kids shows that Paul Reubens remembered from growing up. Shows like Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, and Bozo where the hosts would interact with puppets and characters, Who would usually have a group of kids who would be a part of the antics. In this case, Pee Wee had The Playhouse Gang with many memorable actors’ first roles. Such as a young Natasha Lyonne and Curly Sue star, Alisan Porter who would sing and dance “Broadway Baby” in her episode.
Pee Wee would interact with Jambi, Miss Yvonne, Captain Carl, Conky The Robot, Pterri, Reba The Mail Lady, and Cowboy Curtis. By the way am I the only one who is still weirded out by seeing Laurence Fishburne in a goofy cowboy outfit? Another memorable character was The King of Cartoons, played by the legendary William Marshal, who would introduce animated shorts. The show would also feature other puppet characters and stop motion ones as well.
The theme song was catchy as heck and would play over a long and intricate stop motion sequence that was interspersed with live action and Pee Wee introducing the denizens of the playhouse. It wasn’t until recently that I learned the theme song was actually sung by Cyndi Lauper under a pseudonym. She verified this in her book Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir. If you listen to the theme song now, you will literally never be able to picture anyone else singing it.
The music for the show was something else. It included music from Danny Elfman, Mark Morthersbaugh from Devo, and even Dweezil Zappa. The list of musicians fit with the eclectic feel of the series when it came to art and being unique.
Pee-wee’s Playhouse was a machine when it came to production as was Paul Reubens who embraced his icon status for kids during the show’s run. So much so, that he made a point of having guards to keep him out of sight of kids while in costume so they wouldn’t see him smoking cigarettes.
The series was a hit, and for the second season, they moved filming to Hollywood and a much more user-friendly location. This would lead to the show gaining a production assistant named Rob Zombie as well as another named John Singleton. I am serious. Sadly Phil Hartman would leave after the 1st season as Captain Carl.
The series would grow in popularity, to the point that action figures were made of the characters. There would be lunchboxes, talking Pee Wee dolls, and all sorts of goodies. There was even an attempt at a Pee Wee cereal, but Reubens’s desire to make sure it was healthy and with no sugar meant the recipe became so bad that it was scrapped as no child in their right mind would eat it.
It was between the 2nd and 3rd seasons that Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special was aired on December 21st, 1988. This was, without a doubt, one of the most unexpected and random Christmas Specials ever made. Like the old-school holiday specials of the 60s and 70s, Paul Reubens brought together an insane guest list of performers and celebrities to take part in Pee Wee’s holiday celebrations. Charo, Grace Jones, Cher, and Little Richard are just a few guest stars on the show. It’s included on our JoBlo list of the 10 Weirdest Christmas Specials and movies for a reason. And it’s glorious.
Sadly this would be one of only 3 episodes that would happen within the 3rd season time frame due to the writers’ guild strike. On top of this Reubens was filming Big Top Pee Wee…a project that did not hit as hard with fans as Big Adventure.
Pee-wee’s Playhouse would continue through 1990 with a total of 5 seasons. During its run, it would win a ton of daytime Emmy awards. It would also inspire CBS to take a chance on more live action series in the same vein for Saturday mornings and also NBC.
In 1988 NBC would air 1 season of The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley starring Martin Short. This character was a Martin Short creation that was born from his SCTV days and would even cross over to his days on SNL. The series would show live action Short turning into the cartoon version and would include live action segments with Count Floyd from SCTV.
1988 would also see the single season premiere of Hey Vern It’s Ernest, the Jim Varney starring series, which was live-action and featured Varney in various roles and, of course, Ernest P Worrell.
Both of these similar shows wouldn’t hit the multi season stride that Playhouse did. It was Paul Reubens who decided to end Pee Wee’s Playhouse with the 5th season in 1990. The last episode would be titled Playhouse for Sale and would be a clip episode reminiscing about the previous shows. Unlike what was thought at the time, it wasn’t Reubens incident in the movie theater that ended Pee Wee’s Playhouse, it was simply burnout.
Reubens was working nonstop with the series and was also doing public appearances and interviews, all in character as Pee Wee Herman. You have to realize just how much of a drain that had to be. The turn around time on episodes was also super-fast due to it being a weekly show with a lot of production value. The arrest just happened due to bad timing and a bad choice. Though Reubens didn’t shy away from the fallout, appearing on MTV and simply asking “heard any good jokes lately?” He also embraced that mug shot, at one point saying basically, that was the most badass he’d ever looked.
Paul Reubens really loved the character of Pee Wee Herman, knowing he could never leave him behind and not wanting to. He’d return to him a number of times after the Playhouse ended but would start appearing as himself in interviews at last and also branching out into some pretty amazing roles. Some of the most famous examples are Amilyn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a brief cameo in Batman Returns as Peguin’s father, and one of his most famous roles as Ted Demme in the Johnny Depp film Blow. He also had some great voice roles, a fan favorite being Bat-Mite But he’d always be thankful for the fans and for the joy Pee Wee brought to them.
Paul Reubens sadly passed away in July of 2023 at the age of 70. He had been fighting cancer for a while and had kept the battle very private. Before passing he even wrote a thank you message to the fans that was also an apology for not letting anyone know he was ill. It was similar to the way Gene Wilder treated his illness before passing. The reason was that he did not want children to know he was sick because he didn’t want that to be the memory, they had of seeing or meeting him. He knew what the magic of a character was like Willy Wonka, and so did Paul Reubens with Pee Wee Herman.
Paul Reubens made a point that Pee Wee’s Playhouse would be a place where everyone was welcome. You weren’t going to be judged for being “the weirdo.” In fact, the Playhouse celebrated everyone being as different as they could be. It was fun, loving, and accepting, and as Reuben himself said, it didn’t talk down to kids. Pee Wee spoke to children on their level and learned just like they did during the course of the show. There was always a lesson to be learned and the moral of the whole series was always to be kind to one another.
You can’t bring the Playhouse back without Paul Reubens. There’s no one else that could be Pee Wee Herman. But we have all the Playhouse around on DVD and streaming as well as all the other Pee Wee projects. In fact, the Playhouse has made a big return to the public eye thanks to newly created collectible lines featuring all the characters.
So I’ll just end with a simple thank you to Paul Reubens for giving so much of himself to his fans and creating a rebel and a legend with Pee Wee Herman. He’s always there at the Playhouse waiting for us to come on in and hang out whenever we need him.